Nokia unleashes Windows Phone 8 on the new Lumia 920

Nokia’s new Lumia 920 hardware has already been analyzed in detail, but its software played a major role in the joint Microsoft and Nokia announcement. Windows Phone 8 (WP8) is finally taking shape as pre-production devices were being demoed and even made available for limited hands-on. Microsoft has taken a big gamble by betting on new phones like the 920 — no current phone will be able to run WP8 — and from what was shown by the two companies, it may start paying off soon.

Windows Phone 8 is seriously fun

After over a decade of using a variety of different smartphones, one thing that stands out about about Windows Phone 8 is that it looks like fun. Maybe it is just Joe Belfiore’s infectious enthusiasm for the product, but even customizing the Start screen comes off as being as interesting as many video games. Not having Windows Phone 8 to play with, I followed along with his demo on my Windows 8 laptop, and sure enough was able to quickly put my favorite people tiles on my screen and customize my news and weather offerings quickly. It almost made me forgive Microsoft for removing Gadgets from the Windows 8 desktop.

Another compelling aspect of Belfiore’s demo was showing the HTML5 site for Pulse running on the Lumia 920. Pulse is one of my favorite Android apps — especially since we didn’t used to have Flipboard on Android — and I wasn’t sure whether it’d make it to WP8. The HTML5 version running on WP8 is essentially every bit as good as a native application, with smooth hardware-assisted scrolling and all the bells and whistles. If other key content-centric applications follow suit, HTML5 can help WP8 overcome the daunting challenge of catching up with the hundreds of thousands of applications available for iOS and Android.

Windows everywhere

Microsoft recapped the features of Windows Phone 8 that it showcased in the initial product launch, including integrations with SkyDrive and the new Microsoft account sync features. The 920 will also feature Nokia’s Music service. Certainly one major attraction for loyal users of Windows on the desktop will be a common login and personal preferences across all their devices, and eventually sharing of applications written for the new cross-platform versions of Microsoft’s .NET libraries.

Photographic software lenses

Windows Phone 8 opens up smartphone cameras to add-ins that allow realtime image effects and customizations, allowing for some exciting new applications. These plug-ins, called lenses, can be shipped with the phone or downloaded later. Ironically, this is exactly the type of outside-the-box thinking I was expecting to come first in Android-powered phones, but wasn’t evident in the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Camera or the Nikon Coolpix S800c.

Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore demonstrated a Photosynth lens for creating immersive 360-degree scenes easily. Other lenses shown as part of the Windows Phone 8 demo included Blink for automatically picking out the best of a series of photos of a person’s face, and a lens that integrates with CNN iReport. There is even a Bing Vision lens, with functionality similar to Google Goggles. Nokia is bringing some of its own magic to the image processing party, with a lens called SmartShoot that uses ghost removal from multiple images to delete those pesky tourists from snaps of popular scenes.

These lenses, combined with Nokia’s exciting new “floating lens” image stabilization system (video above), should make the Lumia 920 a uniquely capable smartphone. I did notice that despite Nokia’s excitement about the new phone’s low-light capabilities, the official press photos like the one we used for this article were captured with a Nikon D700 at ISO 2000.

Location, location, location

Nokia continues to leverage its purchase of Navteq into a leadership position for location-based services on smartphones. The Lumia 920 features integrated, offline-capable versions of Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, and Nokia Transport that would usually be the reserve of a dedicated GPS device. Users of those tools are only a click away from free voice-guided navigation. In a nod to the showcase feature of Google Now, the Nokia software will sort out when you need to leave for your commute based on current traffic conditions.

Building on that foundation, Nokia City Lens is a slick looking version of local augmented reality. Sweeping your phone across the scene in front of you highlights local businesses and points of interest. Having used a number of applications which have claimed similar features, the devil will be in the details — literally how much detail is really available in the City Lens view.

If all City Lens provides is what you can already see with your eyes — like restaurant signs and obvious landmarks — it’ll fade away like most of the previous attempts to make staring at the world through your smartphone seem useful or cool. Hopefully it’ll go beyond the obvious and provide useful and personalized information about the local scene.

Taken as a whole, Nokia and Microsoft have clearly tried to combine the best of the iPhone’s integrated user experience and Android’s power and customization capability into a single offering — with a few slick twists of their own. If the experience on production versions of the Nokia 920 lives up to what the two companies have showcased, they may have done it.

Tagged In

I can’t wait to get my hands on the 920. All of those features, including the camera capabilities are unmatched by the competitors. I own the Lumia 900 and I will be getting the 920 as soon as it gets out.

javaper

That makes two of us!

VirtualMark

So, with WP8, can i use my phone as a hard drive? This very simple and basic task wasn’t available on my friends older Windows phone – we had to install the awful Dune software.

With my Android phone, i just plug it to my PC via USB and it gives me a choice of using the phone as a hard drive or using it for tethering.

Bullet Moirangthem

wow, nice phone as compare to other samsung, sony and iphone 5…
http:/tehcblogger.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/tony.cr.752 Tony Cr

Wp8 will flop just like wp7.

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